Last One Speaks

...a complicated woman with simple tastes

Monday, November 30, 2009

Same Plant...

But totally different color flowers on the rest of the branches than the first bloom which was so orange.

The rest of the flowers look like they'll be this pale yellow with the lighter pink. Oddly, as they age out, the yellow gets brighter, like a deep butter color. No idea how I got that one odd color branch in this pot. Wondering if I should break that branch off start a whole new plant. Maybe I invented a new color.

Sorry I've been whipped by the move. This is partly why. Nineteen stairs...

Going to take a while to build up the old climbing skill again. But it won't be so bad once I don't have to make 25 extra trips a day. Meanwhile, still one more day of running around to tie up a few loose ends. I'll be back with a cheerier post soon as I can. Lot to love to about this place.

Saturday, November 28, 2009

Too tired to blog about it

Really. Too tired. Locked the door for the last time at the old place today. Didn't feel that sad about it, even though I will miss the morning on the back porch. Then I went shopping for the bare necessities I need to get started here.

Tomorrow's plan is to hang out in my pjs all day and recoup. Full report on the latest activities in the morning.

Friday, November 27, 2009

Mission accomplished

I'm safely moved into the new little urban hellhole. And we have internet access. Didn't have to do a thing but hook up the computer again. Like where my desk is. All kinds of interesting things going on outside my window. Now I have to run around and get the rest of the utilites switched over and stuff like that. I'll be back later.

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Happy Anniversary

Just a quick note to say Happy Anniversary to my Dad and my second Mom. I think they hit 39 years today, but I could be off by one. Hope my card arrived on time. Can never tell with the mail service around here.

Down to the wire on the moving thing. I may be off line for a few days after Friday. Not clear whether the service will be transferred right away. All I have for the moment is my new favorite shot of the Empire State Building.

Taken by LawVolDP from inside the NY Public Library. I took a couple of pix of my Christmas cactus in case I knock off the flowers when I move it. No time to download at the moment. I'll try to post those later tonight.

Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Moving Right Along

Sorry, not much news on the homefront. Most exciting thing going on here is my Christmas Cactus overcame the transplant shock and are busting out in blooms all over. Hope I can move them to the new place without knocking too many off. My angel wing begonia lost a couple of branches on the ride and it didn't even tip over. I'll try to take a picture before I move it, just in case.

Otherwise counting down the days till Friday. Can't wait to get out of this place. Now that it got cold I have to run the heat system and I swear it makes me sick.

Saturday, November 21, 2009

One more week

Pinned down a mover for the furniture. I contacted the guy I gave the glass patio table to last summer on Freecycle. He seemed so nice and responsible, I saved his email addy with that in mind. He really is so nice, he offered to do it for just gas money because I gave him the table. I will of course, pay him, but that's the way this move has been going. Seems like the universe is trying to make this move easy for me.

Meanwhile, I realize how little stuff I have. Took over another small load, and I'm talking about making three trips up the stairs with very light loose items and this place is almost empty of everything but the furniture. Figuring maybe three more small loads that don't even fill the backseat of my car and I'll be done with everything I can do myself. Plus, as an added bonus, I unearthed my old cassette tapes and now have something to listen to in my car since the one radio station I like down here has gone to all Christmas music already. It was really fun to listen to an old Herschler Brothers tape. Only down side is it's such a short ride, I only get to listen to one or two songs at a time.

Thursday, November 19, 2009

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

The New Digs

So I'm moving a small load that fits in the back seat of my car every day. They're really light loads, but still I'm already tired from three days in a row of hauling stuff up the stairs. I'll be really glad when it's over. On the bright side though, I don't have much stuff. The place is already looking much emptier here and I'll be able to throw out some of these musty old boxes before I even move.

Yesterday was another beautiful day. I got there a little late in the afternoon, so the light wasn't the best for taking photos, but here's a shot of the apartment as seen from the old cemetery.

The two windows on the right are mine. As you can see, my new house isn't a beautiful old Victorian, but I swear it looks bigger inside every time I drop off a load. I've barely cracked the space with all the stuff I already brought over. I had to ditch most of the pictures I took yesterday because the contrast was too much, but here's a shot of the view from my window, even though I took it from the street.

It's a Jewish synagogue so no bells on Sunday mornings, but come to think of it, I haven't heard bells on Sundays since I moved here. Maybe none of the churches do it. I mean there really are something like 347 churches in this town. You would think the din at the 10:00 services would be deafening. Maybe it will be different downtown.

For sure the neighbors are different. I met the older couple downstairs yesterday. Margie and Jack. Very nice people. Friendly and funny. And I walked around the yard. Saw two mourning doves in the back and in the front yard there's a big, really old rose bush with a bird nest in it. There was a mockingbird in there, just looking at me. Seemed almost tame. Thought I would have been able to get a picture, but that was when Margie came out to say hi, so I missed the shot. Thinking I'll get another chance.

So I'm hating the moving part, but looking forward to living inside the city. I think I may have finally found my new lovely downtown Northampton. Here's hoping...

Sunday, November 15, 2009

Out with the Old

Thinking that I should take a couple of pictures of this place before I leave. Here's the living room. You can see I just don't have enough stuff to fill it up.

And I never really got the mantle the way I wanted it. Once I realized I wasn't going to stay here, I lost interest in fixing the place up. I'm happy the new place has a mantle too though. I like having one, even though the fireplaces don't work.

New place has a granite mantle. It's much prettier. Dreading the move. Looking forward to being moved in.

Saturday, November 14, 2009

We have a key

Signed the lease. Have my new keys. Brought over a couple of things so it feels like I'm making progress. I have a new home.

Oddest thing about it. I haven't seen the place since the first day I looked at it. Usually when I finally commit to a place and come back to do the paperwork, it always looks smaller and not quite as nice as I remembered it. This time it looked bigger than I remembered and somehow the paneling looked a little less ugly and the carpets less odious. The hall was much improved since they painted it and he already changed all my electrical outlets. Looking forward to living there.

Down side is it's on the north side and I won't have sun coming in the windows most of the day, but I'll appreciate that in summer I think. The same was true of my last place in the Triangle. Wasn't so bad there and this one has more windows at least so it has light if not direct sun. But the best part is no moldy smell. I'll be so glad to get away from that here.

Meanwhile the neighbor that I only spoke with once, when I asked her about the weird bitter orange tree, came over to tell me how much she was going to miss me. This is such a cute town.

Monday, November 09, 2009

Sunny Sunday

It was gorgeous here yesterday so I took a long afternoon walk through the cemetary. Most of the color is gone. The trees turned early in here for some reason and there's lot of bare branches now. But of course the evergreens never lose their charm. This alley is one of my favorite places there.

There are still a few fully clothed trees though. I couldn't get the angle I wanted on this one. It was just gorgeous in the afternoon light. But the pix gives you a sense of how it was glowing.

And even though the time/temp clock said it was 86 degrees in the sun, it felt and smelled very much like a fall day in New England. But this is the south, so the roses are hanging on too.

Won't get too many days like this, not even here. I'm a bit tired today from it today though. Haven't been out enough. Not easy to adjust from zero to a 90 minute walk.

Sunday, November 08, 2009

Maybe I should buy a metal detector

When I think of metal detectors, I think about old guys on the beach, scanning the sand looking for loose change. I've actually always thought it was a kind of cool hobby for retired people. But this story is about a younger guy in Scotland. He decided he wanted to give it a try and on his first day out with it, he found this million dollar stash of ancient gold necklaces in some field. Click the link for the whole fascinating story.

This is the second time in less than a month someone in the UK has found a treasure like this. It's enough to make me consider buying one too and moving to Wales or somewhere I'd be likely to find such antiquities. Small investment, big return if you hit the right spot.

Saturday, November 07, 2009

So it I found a photo of the actual house of my dream apartment in this town. At least from the outside. I of course, wanted that corner place with the the round porch and tower.

Who knows, maybe it's just awful on the inside and it wasn't for rent in any event. May be just as well. The place is for sale (for only $475,000) and while it's unlikely to sell in this market, it would be my luck that somebody would buy it and I'd have to move again. And it's probably expensive.

I'm only about three or four blocks from this place anyway and my new place has a better yard and a better view. So there's that.

Thursday, November 05, 2009

Uncle Zolo

Busy getting ready for the move so I'm reaching into the pix my sister so kindly scanned and sent me. Uncle Zolo and my aunt divorced quite soon after I met him but I liked the guy. Remember thinking he was almost as handsome as my Dad.

Argh. You can see my hair definitely hit the awkward stage by this age.

Tuesday, November 03, 2009

I love New York

One of the things I like best about Twitter is finding new people to follow. I've been following ESB Lights for a while. They only post pictures having to do with the Empire State Building and they have some great shots every day. It was through that account that I found John De Guzman who takes pix of lots of different landmarks in NYC. I asked him to take some photos of my very favorite buildng in the world, The Chrysler Building. Turns out he already had some. Here's a shot he took from the top of ESB.

As always, click on the picture to enlarge and get the full impact.

And while I'm doing pictures, check out this shot. Nature's gates of hell. Wouldn't want to see that outside my window.

Oh, and I didn't post this here yet. Astounding video of a basketball player killing a live bat that got into the building by knocking it out of the air with his bare hand.

Monday, November 02, 2009

They claim they're going to start hosting the first guests in 2012. People have aalready signed up and it while it looks so cool, it doesn't sound that comfortable.

During their stay, guests would see the sun rise 15 times a day and travel around the world every 80 minutes. They would wear Velcro suits so they can crawl around their pod rooms by sticking themselves to the walls like Spiderman.

However, the package does also include an eight-week training course on a tropical island. So there's that. And the little rocket ship shuttle remains docked to the hotel throughout the course of your stay, so "you don't feel abandoned."

Space tourism. You have to love it. I'm anticipating no one I know has the spare bucks for this, but maybe somebody has only $200K for a ride on Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic ride into suborbital space? That sounds like just as much fun to me.

Sunday, November 01, 2009

An unexpected email

This is why I love the internets so much. Someone I've never met in 3D life, Graeme, found my old post on the Berkshire Snow Basin and emailed me to send these photos of the artifacts he managed to unearth at the site on a recent visit. Seeing this trail marker literally brought a tear to my eye.

And chances are very great that my butt once graced this very t-bar that he found in one of the abandoned shacks. Lord knows I spent enough time there that I probably rode every single one of them at least once.

It's very sad that this little ski hill didn't survive the industry upheaval of the 90s, or was it the 80s when all the little places folded? It may have been just a little hill but it had a great big heart. But I guess it will live forever in the hearts and memories of those of us regulars who made it our own special place. So there's that.